World Day Against Child Labour

6 April 2008

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World Day Against Child Labour 12 June 2016

End Child Labour in supply chains. It’s everyone’s business!

World Day Against Child Labour 2016 focuses on supply chains. Increasingly complex, they span sectors, countries and regions. And a supply chains – including in agriculture and fishing, manufacturing and mining, services and construction, and whether global or national – may involve some of the 168 million children still in child labour. Eliminating child labour in supply chains is everyone’s business, and requires the commitment of governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations and enterprises themselves.

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World Day 12 June 2014

Extend social protection, combat child labour - World Day Against Child Labour, 12 June 2014.

Social protection is both a human right and makes sound economic and social sense. Social protection enables access to education, health care and nutrition and plays a critical role in the fight against child labour. This year, World Day Against Child Labour draws attention to the role of social protection in keeping children out of child labour and removing them from it. In 2013, at the III Global Conference on Child Labour in Brasilia, the international community adopted the Brasilia Declaration, which stresses the need for decent work for adults, free, compulsory and quality education for all children, and social protection for all. Echoing those priorities, World Day 2014 calls for:

  • Action to introduce, improve and extend social protection, in line with the ILO Recommendation No. 202 on social protection floors.
  • National social security systems that are sensitive to children’s needs and help fighting child labour.
  • Social protection that reaches out to especially vulnerable groups of children.

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World Day 12 June 2013

This year's slogan of the World Day Against Child Labour is "No child labour in domestic work!".

The ILO estimates that 15.5 million children are engaged in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third party or employer. These children can be particularly vulnerable to exploitation, their work is often hidden from the public eye, they may be isolated, and they may be working far away from their family home. Stories of the abuse of children in domestic work are all too common. On the 2013 World Day Against Child Labour we call for:

  • Legislative and policy reforms to ensure the elimination of child labour in domestic work and the provision of decent work conditions and appropriate protection to children who have reached the legal working age.
  • ILO member States to ratify Convention No. 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers and its implementation along with the ILO's child labour Conventions.
  • Action to build the Worldwide movement against child labour and to build the capacity of domestic workers organisations to address child labour.

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World Day 12 June 2012

The slogan of the World Day Against Child Labour in 2012 was "Human rights and social justice! Let's end child labour!" The World Day Against Child Labour provided a spotlight on the right of all children to be protected from child labour and from other violations of fundamental human rights. In 2010 the international community adopted a Roadmap for achieving the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016 (PDF 198 Kb), which stressed that child labour is an impediment to children’s rights and a barrier to development. World Day 2012 highlighted the work that needs to be done to make the roadmap a reality.

The ILO’s Conventions seek to protect children from exposure to child labour. Together with other international instruments relating to children’s, workers’ and human rights they provide an important framework for legislation established by national governments. However the ILO’s most recent global estimate is that 215 million children worldwide are involved in child labour, with more than half this number involved in its worst forms. The children concerned should be at school being educated, and acquiring skills that prepare them for decent work as adults. By entering the labour market prematurely, they are deprived of this critical education and training that can help to lift them, their families and communities out of a cycle of poverty. In its worst forms, child labourers may also be exposed to physical, psychological or moral suffering that can cause long term damage to their lives.

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World Day 12 June 2011

The slogan of the World Day against Child Labour was “Warning! Children in hazardous work – End child labour”. The ILO issued a new report for the World Day warning that a staggeringly high number of children are still caught in hazardous work – some 115 million of the world’s 215 million child labourers – and calls for urgent action to halt the practice.

The report, “Children in hazardous work: what we know, what we need to do” (PDF 1.3 Mb), cities studies from both industrialized and developing countries indicating that every minute of every day, a child labourer somewhere in the world suffers a work-related accident, illness or psychological trauma.

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World Day 12 June 2010

As the football World Cup in South Africa kicks off, the ILO is to mark the World Day against Child labour with an urgent appeal to “go for the goal – end child labour”, calling particular attention to the target of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

“While billions are caught up in the excitement of the football World Cup, some 215 million children are laboring for survival. Education and play are luxuries for them. Progress towards ending child labour is slowing down and we are not on course to end its worst forms by 2016. We have to get the momentum going again. Let us draw inspiration from the World Cup and rise to challenge with the energy, the right strategy and the commitment it takes to get to the goal”, said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

In Geneva on June 11 the International Labour Conference discussed the ILO’s new Global Report on child labour entitled “Accelerating action against child labour” (PDF 4.2 Mb). That same day, to mark the World Day hundreds of local school children participated in a “Children’s solidarity event” at the Place des Nations organized by the “Le Respect, ca change la Vie” community association, in cooperation with the ILO. Children and local civic leaders gathered around a football goal to “go for the goal against child labour” and showed the “Red card against child labour”.

The World Day comes one month after more than 450 delegates from 80 countries met at a Conference in The Hague convened by the Government of the Netherlands to agree on a roadmap to accelerate progress to reach the goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016. The Roadmap sets out a number of guiding principles and identifies action to be taken by governments, social partners (workers and employers), civil society, non-governmental and other civil society, regional and international organizations.

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World Day 12 June 2009

The global financial crisis could push an increasing number of children, particularly girls, into child labour, according to a new report issued the International Labour Office for the World Day against Child Labour on June 12.

The ILO report, entitled Give Girls a chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the future (PDF 1.5 Mb), notes the while recent global estimates indicate the number of children involved in child labour has been falling, the financial crisis threatens to erode this progress.

The report says the danger of girls being forced into child labour is linked to evidence that in many countries families give preference to boys when making decisions on education of children. It states that because of the increase in poverty as result of the crisis poor families with a number of children may have to make choices as to which children stay in school. In cultures in which a higher value is placed on education of male children, girls risk being taken out of school, and are then likely to enter the workforce at an early age.

Other factors which could push up the numbers in child labour include cuts in national education budgets, and a decline in remittances of migrant workers, as these remittances often help to keep children in school.

This year’s World Day against Child Labour also coincides with the tenth anniversary of ILO Convention No. 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour.

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World Day 12 June 2008

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World Day 12 June 2007

Kazakhstan

On June 12, the preliminary results of the awareness raising campaign “12 days against the exploitation of child labour” were summed up in Almaty. The campaign was organized by the public organization Union of Women of Intellectual Labour, the ILO, Almaty’s administration and prosecutor’s office and representatives of non-governmental organizations and mass media. It was launched on June 1 – the Children’s Day and was held till June 12 – the World Day against Child Labour.

The campaign’s goal was to raise public awareness and mobilize people’s efforts in combating child labour.

“The fact that so many organizations took part in the project proves that people are not indifferent to the future of our children and that everybody heard our appeal to fight child labour”, the president of the Union of Women of Intellectual Labour, Laila Akhmetova, said.

Tajikistan

From June 12 to June 18 Tajikistan’s capital hosted an exhibition of graphic works by Tajik graphic painter Farrukh Negmadsade in the Gurminndzh Zavkibekov musical instruments museum. The exhibition was devoted to the World Day against Child Labour and carried its central theme Harvest for the Future; agriculture without child labour. It brought together 55 graphic paintings that reflected the author’s thoughts about child labour in Tajikistan.

The exhibition was organized by the non-governmental organization The Youth Foundation 21 st Century, the musical instruments museum with the ILO’s support.

On April 17, a new web site in Tajikistan’s social policy reform and protection of children’s rights was represented in the Labour and Social Protection Ministry in Dushanbe.

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World Day 12 June 2006

With World Cup fever in full swing, the ILO symbolically waved a “Red Card” against child work as part of a series of global events to mark the World Day against Child Labour.

World Cup football legend Roger Milla of Cameroon and leaders of the sports, scouting and labour words spoke at ceremonies in Geneva on 12 June, the World Day. Mr. Milla and others appealed for an end to child labour at the event, designed to highlight the ILO’s global “Red Card to child labour” campaign which through the partnership with FIFA, has reached millions of people around the world since its launch in 2002.

At the same time, activities ranging from television specials to nationwide discussions, marches and public awareness raising events were held in some 100 countries under the theme, “The End of Child Labour: Within reach” (PDF 1.2 Mb), according to the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

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World Day 12 June 2005

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World Day 12 June 2004

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World Day 12 June 2003

The World Day against Child Labour is intended to serve as a catalyst for enhancing the growing campaign against child labour, as reflected in the steadily increasing number of ratifications of Convention No. 182. Across the globe, this Day is commemorated with a wide range of activities. Thus, on 11 June 2003 the ILO Subregional Office in Moscow organized an event that gathered representatives of the parliament, Government, UN Agencies and international organizations, Embassies, non-governmental organizations, academia and mass media.

The meeting was addressed by the Head of the Department of Family, Women, Children and Youth Issues at the Ministry of Labour, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Labour and Social Policy, UNICEF Representative in the Russian Federation and Belarus and ILO Senior Specialist on Labour Standards. The event was concluded by the demonstration of Lilya 4-Ever, a Swedish feature film directed by Lukas Moodyson about a Russian girl who was trafficked to Sweden and then forced into prostitution.

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